The new 5-on-5 gameplay is something that many fans might want to try out – with the amazing fun that this year’s set of hockey games showed with its multiplayer options, it’s only natural for the same idea to work in a hoops game. New Off the Ball controls should allow players to play a realistic game of 5-on-5 basketball over XBL and PSN. Of course you can’t stop players from playing like a children – but players will be rated in how they play so it’ll be easier to choose to play with people who wish to play a realistic game. Full ten player multiplayer – I can’t wait to try that.

Franchise mode has been made less daunting—allowing players to play any specific part that they wish and turn other hard-line features off. If you just want to play a franchise by simply playing the game without worrying about off the court stuff – you can.

Defensively, Lock On Defense is back but this time made more realistic; the example given was Shaq will not be able to Lock on Chris Paul. He’ll have no chance against him. The ‘shield wall’ defenders from 2K8 were annoying so this was good to hear.

Late game AI received some attention as well as the fatigue – which was broken last year in online games. While Jones contends that fast breaks weren’t a problem last year, which I strongly disagree with, running them should be easier this year. We’ll have to wait and see on that one as the shielding defenders ruined many a fast break in NBA 2K8.

Graphics again brought EA’s Live series back to the discussion. Jones says 2K9 is “head and shoulders” better than NBA Live and even asked gamers to check forums to compare the head shots of both games. Live’s graphics are still a tad behind NBA 2K8 let alone 2K9 so this is most likely the case. It’s hard to beat 2K’s graphics engine.

Other random bits: